We Are All Immigrants Project

The Rodriguez Family

Puerto Rico

My grandparents grew up on either side of the city walls of Old San Juan. Guzman was from La Perla, a poor village outside the northern wall, and Henrietta from the affluent Calle Sol, safely within its walls. My great grandmother, Rosaria, would not allow her college-educated daughter, whom she raised to aspire to a better life, wed a poor man. Guzman and Henrietta left home for the US in 1929 so they could marry.